S02E01: Re-Introducing The Pirates of Sissa - TRANSCRIPT

Hi, there! I hope you're doing great, and that April is treating you well so far. After many days of sun, these past couple of days have been a little cloudy over here, and the nights are still a little chilly overall. Still, it's wonderful to look out of your window and see such vibrant green everywhere.

Today I want to re-introduce The Pirates of Sissa. If you've listened since the beginning of the podcast, you might notice that I already introduced The Pirates of Sissa in Season 1 Episode 2. That was a long while ago, but I do feel like the essence of the story is the same - if with many more characters involved than I had previously thought.

Before I get into the major changes that have taken place, I want to go ahead and read the original blurbs out to you again, because they are still very relevant, though certain terms and wording has been changed:

    Sahra despises the Sissans for what they have done to her people.
    
    Vadra hates the Qorsan for what they have done to his.
    
    Both of them have blood on their hands.
    
    When the two of them are forced to work together to usher in an era of peace among the Sissans and the Qorsan, they must learn to overcome their differences in search of a common goal.
    
    A study in the politics of discrimination, imperialism, and the effects of decades-long conflict, The Pirates of Sissa delves into topics that remain relevant on a global scale today.

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    A decades-old conflict that won't die.
    
    A hatred that grows day by day.
    
    A death toll, constantly on the rise.
    
    The Empire of Sissa has, for decades, abused the Qorsan, effectively expelling most of this minority, forcing them to live in the Black Desert - a harsh and unforgiving place where they must struggle for survival on a daily basis.
    
    As such, the Qorsan have desperately turned to theft to find food and supplies. They are constantly clashing with Sissan forces, with lethal results on both sides.
    
    For the Sissans, their hatred is justified. For the Qorsan, theirs is even more so.
    
    When both parties blame one another - when so much blood has already been spilled - when they have passed the point of no return - can peace truly become a reality, or is it simply a distant dream?

    
Alright, so those are two separate blurbs that I had written for The Pirates of Sissa way back when to introduce the book to my followers and fellow writers on social media at the time. The first blurb, you'll notice, deals with the individuals at the center of this book. Those are Sahra Ren, a Qorsan, and Vadra Vuur, a Sissan.

Their individual storylines are extremely important to the plot, and most of the plot is in fact directly or indirectly related to or dependent on them, despite the fact that they may not always have a say in certain matters or how things pan out.

The second blurb is more of a general one, meant to give the reader a big picture scenario. I think sometimes it's easy to forget, when you're reading stories that revolve around a particular set of main characters, that there are others in their societies, and they are also involved.

The Empire of Sissa is the largest empire in all of Qarra. Its size is quite magnificent, and its ability to instill its control over such vast territories, many of which are conquered kingdoms, is impressive to say the least. We'll talk a bit more about the Empire of Sissa in another episode. But that's just to say that the empire is huge, with hundreds of thousands of people - if not millions - living within its walls, and every single one of those people has been taught a specific kind of story about the Qorsan.

The Qorsan, while a minority in numbers, are also a significant number of people living out in the Black Desert. Their numbers have dwindled because of the dangerous lives they lead as refugees in the Black Desert, but many of them are still surviving, and many of them feel the pain that the Sissans have caused all too strongly.

So it's not just about Sahra and Vadra coming to terms with their hatred for one another. It can't be. They're not the only ones there. But I do wish to convey, through their story, how such a thing could be possible. I think the most effective way that I can do that is by focusing on two characters as examples - two characters who truly despise one another and who have to walk a long and rocky road towards establishing mutual respect and forgiveness.

So, that's why there are two blurbs. What's missing from these blurbs, however, are the other very important characters that make up a great deal of the story. Sahra and Vadra might be the stars of the show, but all around them are characters with their own arcs and plotlines, including the Emperor Gallus, the palace servant Luca, the military general Krig, the so-called scientist Gelsef, and many, many more. Each of them plays a crucial role, no matter how small, because they represent the different kinds of people involved in the situation at large, and how each person has their own motives. They're also a good representation of how individual personalities can have a large impact when they have the power to instill their own will.

You might have also noticed that the original introduction episode's blurb referred to the Qorsan as pirates. We'll get into the Qorsan and the history of the Qorsan-Sissan conflict in a later episode, but the term 'pirates' was always meant to be a derogatory way of referring to the Qorsan. There is a specific reason it evolved, and it's not something ethnic or racial in any way, but again, we'll get into that in more depth later on. The main point I want to make here is that language used plays an important role in the book, and you can definitely tell how people think of the Qorsan and the judgements they make about them through the language they use when referring to them. Because the blurb is meant to be a blurb, I decided to use their actual name (which, at the time of writing the original blurb, I didn't have a name for the Qorsan, and only had the term 'pirates' to fall back on, hence again the use of the term 'pirates' in that original blurb). As for the title of the book, you'll just have to read it and find out why I've decided to keep it as "Pirates" rather than changing it!

Apart from that, the main themes of The Pirates of Sissa remain the same. Imperialism is a pretty big basket of problems to delve into, so I'm sure I won't be able to discuss all the ways in which it is problematic, but I do my best to represent, even through day-to-day activities, the detrimental effect imperialism has had on various peoples in the Empire of Sissa, though mostly the Qorsan who have bore the brunt* of imperialist abuse, I think.

[*Yup, I misspoke here. You can thank the very curious and chatty kitten that was distracting me. I regret nothing.]

Conflict escalation, de-escalation, and resolution are all important concepts that are dealt with, either directly or indirectly, in the book as well, as are a variety of other topics like discrimination, both institutionalized and individual, and the psychological effects of conflict, imperialism, and discrimination on not just the individual but also the collective psyche. I can only hope that I do these topics justice in my book, and that readers can learn about the detrimental effects of all of these elements in a way that clearly represents the issues without sounding like a difficult research article.

That's all I have for today's episode! I hope you enjoyed this re-introduction to The Pirates of Sissa. As an author, I feel bad saying this, but this book in particular has been more exciting for me to write than any of my other books so far. I've returned to it more often than any of the others, and have spent more hours on it than any of the others. It's a very important project for me, and while it was originally meant to be released after The Fall of the Black Masks, the amount of fun I've had working on it is making me rethink that strategy, especially since the plots introduced in these two books occur in parallel and don't necessarily depend on one another.

Thank you so much for tuning in for today's episode! If you have any questions about The Pirates of Sissa or my writing in general, or if you want to request episodes about certain parts of The Pirates of Sissa, please don't hesitate to drop by my social media and let me know there.  

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